Wisconsin Employer Survey
The Wisconsin Employer Survey is conducted twice a year by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) — the combined state chamber and manufacturers association. The assessment provides a snapshot of where Wisconsin’s employers stand on a number of important issues and outlines their economic outlook for both Wisconsin and the United States. For the Winter 2025 edition, WMC surveyed 153 employers that make up a representative sample of its membership. Businesses of all sizes, industries and geographic locations in Wisconsin participated.
Tariffs & Other Federal Issues
Wisconsin business leaders support President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on goods imported from China, but have concerns about tariffs on nations like Canada and Mexico.
The survey also shows that Wisconsin business leaders want to see immigration reform, but 89 percent say the plan should start with securing the U.S. southern border. As for what immigration reform should look like, respondents overwhelmingly support updating the nation’s guest worker program, with emphasis on H-1B visas.
Business leaders also showed overwhelming support for specific tax reforms.
Workforce
The latest Wisconsin Employer Survey found that the number of Wisconsin businesses having trouble finding workers dropped to its lowest level in a decade.
Just 63 percent of the respondents of the semiannual CEO survey said they were having trouble finding workers, down from 72 percent a year ago and 68 percent in the summer. The last time the percentage was this low was in the winter of 2015 when 63.9 percent of survey respondents said they were having trouble hiring.
Economy
Despite the reduced demand for workers, business leaders are more optimistic entering 2025 than they were a year ago.
Sixty-three percent of respondents say the Wisconsin economy will see growth in the first half of the new year, while 34 percent say it will remain flat. For the U.S. economy, 75 percent predict growth during the same time period, with 21 percent saying the economy will remain flat.
The trend is even better on profitability. Eighty-five percent of respondents say their company was profitable in the last 6 months of 2024, and a robust 96 percent predict being profitable in the first 6 months of 2025.
Health Care
Wisconsin employers are plagued by increasingly higher health care costs, according to the latest WMC Wisconsin Employer Survey.
Wisconsin’s health care costs remain the fifth highest in the country, and 88% of survey respondents predict their costs will increase even more this year. Of these, the majority say these increases will necessitate increasing employee contributions.
“Wisconsin’s business community has serious concerns about extreme health care costs,” stated WMC’s Executive Vice President of Government Relations Scott Manley. “These costs are not only a competitive disadvantage, as they dip into employee compensation, investment opportunities, and more, but they also hurt Wisconsin families.”
State Policy
According to the survey, the cost of health care is tied with the labor shortage/lack of qualified applicants as the top issue facing Wisconsin employers in 2025. When asked what the one thing state government could do to help businesses, 41% of respondents answered, “make health care more affordable.”
In addition to health care policy reform, employers noted that in order to improve the state’s business climate, state government should reduce taxes and reduce regulations.